Topical Tropes

These are what we call the 'YMMV items.' Things that some people find in this work. We call them 'your mileage might vary' because not everyone sees these things in the same way. This starts discussions in the trope lists, a thing we don't want. Please use the discussion page if you'd like to discuss any of these items.

Accidental Innuendo: Emily is very proud of her Big Wheels. And the freight cars in "Pop Goes the Diesel" moan when Diesel tries to jerk them out of a siding.

And the line "Ben banged his freight cars hard".

"Engines with proper funnels do! You've only got a small one!"

From The Movie, Peter Fonda has a little trouble making his lady steam.

"Henry smiles all the while he has his Special Coal. Henry's Special Coal makes him very happy."

"Ooooh I'm stiff! I'm stiff!, he (Henry) groaned".

Adaptation Displacement: Especially in the United States, where Awdry's books are scarce to the point of being unknown.

So much that Bookstores would sometimes carry versions from the British printings in the early 90s.

Anvilicious: For the first seven seasons, the morals were far more subtle, but seasons 9 through 16 had the anvil hit hard. Season 17 seems to have pulled back from this, having more subtle Aesops or odd stories which lack them altogether.

Calling All Engines!: "Steam engines and diesel engines need to work together!" Ironic considering the Fantastic Racism abound during the CGI seasons.

Added Alliterative Appeal: Seasons 8 through 12 had them in small doses, and seasons 13 through 16 had them in every episode.

"Cranky the Crane was quick to criticize," in "Horrid Lorry".

A particularly cringe-inducing example is present in "Percy's New Friends": "Cranky cranked crankily."

"Snow is silly soft stuff! Won't stop me!"

Gordon, James and Henry's old Catchphrase: "Disgraceful! Disgusting! Despicable!"

Author's Saving Throw: Andrew Brenner, a former writer of Thomas magazine stories back during seasons 1 and 2 (as well as for some adapted stories for Season 3 and 5), took over as head writer of the series starting with King of the Railway and season 17. Since he's arrived, the writing quality of the series has improved, and several fan-favorite characters have made their official returns (Duck, Bill and Ben, Harvey, Oliver and Toad).

It also helps that he also brought along old writers like Paul Larson, who wrote The Thomas Way and Henry's Hero and Lee Pressman, who rescued several previously hated characters from scrappy status, as well as experienced writers in children's television like Davey Moore, who wrote Percy's Lucky Day, one of the most well-received episodes of Season 17.

From Season 18, "Duck and the Slip Coaches". Almost universally well-received by the fanbase except for the infamous shed scene.

Awesome Music: The character's letimotifs from the Campbell and Donnell era. Every. Single. One. Seriously, it's hard to believe why this isn't on the series' main page.

Big Lipped Alligator Moment: Follow That Flour. Most of the episode is about Thomas and James getting into an argument and Thomas taking flour cars, but the first two minutes is just some random montage of how the Skarloey Railway characters enjoy working at the wharf.

Everything in "Rusty and the Boulder". Gordon's stern face suddenly appearing on the boulder, random chase scenes that try too hard to mimic the famous scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the shed somehow catching fire, and the quarry being closed down despite the boulder out of the way now.

Also, in Thomas & The Magic Railroad, a talking tumbleweed constantly appears. It's there for no reason and the characters never refer to it.

Both accidents in "Bye George!". Thomas crashing into a henhouse and a truck somersaulting in the air after Gordon hits it.

Much fighting within the Thomas the Tank Engine community comes from the fact some of the older, nostalgic fans think either the new, younger fanbase are a bunch of morons (at least those who've outgrown the target demographic) or go out of their way to bash the writers over their tendency to treat the supposed young, bright minds as morons. Shipping and overused locomotive classes are also huge sources of Internet Backdraft.

The last scene in Duck and the Slip Coaches, a hillarious Take That to those who thought that Emily replaced Duck? Or an unnecessarily cruel treatment of a character whom the fanbase has warmed up to and didn't deserve it?

Fans seem completely split down the middle over the shift to CGI animation. Many fans find it a complete betrayal to the original model series, or a necessary move that opened up more potential for characterization and flexibility story wise.

Many episodes (particularly in the Miller era) are polarising due to breaking railway code in often drastic fashions. While many loath this betrayal of realism the original books had, some consider them an Acceptable Break from Reality that allows for a greater amount of story and character development that couldn't be done otherwise.

The Adventure Begins is a bit of a nasty topic for some, as there are fans who despise it for being a "bad adaption" because of its Artistic License, ignoring things that were done wrong back in Alcroft's days.

Some of the recent changes in voice actors, or even just those between the UK and US dubs, are also of contention, especially since some sound vastly different from the other. Prior to that, the various narrators were also of debate between fans.

Certain characters retaining their early HiT era personalities in the Brenner era (particularly Henry). Some think it gives the characters more unique personalities, while others feel it makes them out of character.

Carefully Deconstructed in Duck's first reappearance "The Thomas Way", where he has a point against Thomas' mischievousness, but his own stubbornness causes an accident, leading to both being called out by the Fat Controller and having to Take a Third Option.

Due to the overwhelming amount of male characters, CargoYaoiShippings are arguably more popular than the above pairings listed. Generally Thomas/Percy, Edward/James and Gordon/Henry are accepted, either seriously or just for the hell of it.

As a side-effect, humanized stories and fan art with many of the above ships are not uncommon.

Character Rerailment: Metaphorically of course. Many of the engines' slowly waxed and waned in the long run, some becoming almost polar opposites of their former selves. From Season 17 onward however, a new writing team was brought on board, reverting back many of the engines to their original personalities and refreshing it's roots to The Railway Series. Some traits introduced in the TV show remain, albeit more as more tolerable Hidden Depths.

From season 14 through 16, the much-loathed trio of Bash, Dash, and Ferdinand, (and the equally detested Misty Island), made constant appearances, even if they had no real reason to be included in the plot. This may be because their creator (and the writer of Misty Island Rescue) was also the head writer of the show.

As of late, due to being an antagonist in Tale of the Brave and starring in a number of episodes, people are starting to claim Andrew Brenner is overusing James. (Of course, he DID state that James is one of his favorite characters...) Him having Took Multiple Levels In Jerkass hasn't helped either.

This may have stemmed from the fact that James got 3 spotlight episodes in a row, Toad's Adventure, Duck in the Water, and Duck and the Slip Coaches, though those were his only episodes as a main character for Season 18.

Critical Research Failure: Started cropping up once the show branched away from the books, though it's most prominent in Season 15. The most infamous examples include "Thomas and the Jet Engine", "Fiery Flynn" and "Wonky Whistle". Luckily, they now have a railway consultant to avoid this.

Crowning Music of Awesome: Most fans say the work of Mike O' Donnel and Junior Campbell (who were the music composers from 1984-2003) made the best music, though Robert Hartshorne's music is starting to grow on older fans, especially after Ed Welch departed the series.

In Steam Roller, Skarloey and the others make fun of Sir Handel's wheels, and when Sir Handel sticks up for himself, Skarloey makes a plan "To make Sir Handel see sense." He's treated as being in the right for this. In contrast, this one is due to a flawed adapation. In The Railway Series story that the episode was adapted from, when Skarloey made The Plan, several days had passed since then and Sir Handal had gotten arrogant about it, thus requiring him to be knocked down a peg.

The diesels, between Calling All Engines! and Season 17, often fall into this. Case in point, Diesel's role in Misty Island Rescue.

The policeman in "Thomas in Trouble". Sure he was a jerk, but he was only doing his job. Which involved enforcing outdated laws, but still.

Dude, Not Funny!: The last scene in Duck and the Slip Coaches, which features Henry getting ahead of Emily to the last berth in Tidmouth Sheds, the reason being that it was a subtle attempt by the writers to poke fun at the "Emily Replaced Duck!" theory, but since Emily hadn't done anything wrong (The main antagonist of the episode was James), several feel that it was too mean-spirited (And it doesn't help since Emily played minor, but very positive roles in Tale of the Brave and Flatbeds of Fear).

"Trucks are/Cars waiting in the yard, tackling them with easel, show the world what I can do, gaily boasts the diesel. In and out he creaks about, like a big black weasel, when he pulls the wrong trucks/cars out...pop goes the diesel!"

And later on, "Oliver's no use at all, thinks he's very clever. Says that he can manage us. That's the best joke ever! When he orders us about, with the greatest folly, we just push him down the well...pop goes ol' Ollie!"

Ensemble Darkhorse: For main characters, the tender engines trio consisting of Gordon, James and Henry.

For secondary characters, Duck wins by a landslide, followed by Oliver, the Scottish twins, and Bill and Ben. Especially evident from the fanfare they got for their return come season 17 and 18 (Donald and Douglas have yet to reappear). One-off characters usually get quite popular.

Paxton, a non-speaking background character introduced in 2011's Day of the Diesels, was given a much larger starring role in Blue Mountain Mystery that solidified his odd but well-meaning personality. Fans liked the character so much that he's since received several starring roles in Series 17 and 18.

Ethnic Scrappy: The Logging Locos, a trio of redneck American locomotives who are almost universally loathed by the fanbase. American characters in general tend to be less well-received by fans, a good chunk of their hate coming from American fans themselves, though the introduction of good characters such as Connor, Caitlin and Porter helps. Averted with Millie, Victor and especially Hiro, who is wildly popular in Japan.

Fandom Berserk Button: Referring to Thomas the Tank Engine as "Thomas the Train", "Thomas the Tank", or especially "Thomas the Choo Choo Train" will guarantee you a kick in the rear from the fanbase.

Fanon Discontinuity: The Magic Railroad, which attempted to mix Thomas and Friends continuity with the completely different Shining Time Station. It included an actually murderous Cartoon Creature, Diesel 10, completely breaking the cosy Little England atmosphere of Thomas and frightening the intended audience of small children. The film has all but been removed from continuity, though characters Lady and Diesel 10 have shown up in later films, though Lady only appeared in a dream.

Family-Unfriendly Aesop: Tons, especially in the earlier episodes. A really bad one would be in "Jack Jumps In", in which the aesop is something along the lines of "Don't try and help anybody with anything ever, because you'll just screw up and get yourself hurt. So stay in your place and don't complain." Reprimanded somewhat in the following episode, "A Friend in Need", when Jack does jump in again, this time to save Thomas from falling off a bridge. This time he gets praised, repaired, and made part of the Pack.

Franchise Original Sin: The initial episodes, even those based directly of The Railway Series stories, wavered somewhat in realism for story purposes or studio goofs. The drivers' involvement went in out depending on the plot ("Daisy" seemingly had an engine stop and start without her driver's involvement, all of one episode after demonstrating engines' dependence on their workmen). and sometimes engines would suffer Out Of Character Moments (Edward shown subtle signs of an irritable or heckling demeanor as early as Season One). The Reverend infamously expressed distaste for the Season Three episode "Henry's Forest" because of its violation of Rule 55; imagine if he had been alive to witness Season 5 onwards, though then again, Season 5 wouldn't have been made as it was if he was alive, as the original copyright was still in his hands.

The Reverend gave the characters defining quirks (James' vanity, Percy's naivety) that made them interesting, but lazy writing soon Flanderized their personality into nothing but said quirks (James became a self-absorbed Jerkass obsessed with his paint, Percy became Too Dumb to Live), making the entire cast unsympathetic and painful to watch until Season 17 came along.

HiT is often criticized for introducing an abundant amount of characters who only appeared in one episode (usually alongside Thomas) before being delegated to cameos or disappearing altogether, created only for merchandising purposes. However such a trend was started all the way back in Season 5, with the likes of Thumper, Bertram, etc. (Salty and Cranky naturally exempt.) Even The Railway Series used a palpable number of one shot characters for stories that got no development or even basic personalities (so much the adapted episodes had to replace a lot of them with recurring characters for cost issues). However, most of these characters were one-shot antagonists that had an in-story reason for leaving Sodor, whilst Executive Meddling demanding more Thomas stories prevented the development of other characters, with Bear being a primary example.

The over usage of formulas can also be counter argued since the original novels were also frequently criticized for this problem (it was also a key reason the series stopped adapting from the books from the first place). Execution of said formulas on the other hand...

Growing the Beard: After languishing in Seasonal Rot for seasons 9-16, Season 17 has been much more well received thanks to Andrew Brenner. Some may call it a Beard Re-growth. Season 18 and Tale of the Brave have cemented this in the eyes of the fans, with the former putting focus back on the Awdry characters, while the latter has been praised for its character-driven and dramatic storyline.

An earlier example would be Season 2, which started tackling Darker and Edgier plots and introduced fan-favorite characters. It's often cited as the high point of the classic series.

He Really Can Act: Ben Small's voice for Thomas is endearing, but rarely excels past the quirky personality you'd expect from a pre school cartoon character. He puts a great deal of realistic emotion into the surprisingly dramatic Tale Of The Brave however.

Hilariousin Hindsight: "Henry's Forest", despite being a very heartwarming episode, was infamous for breaking a number of railway rules and leading the Awdrys to cut ties with the TV series. But come 2013, Andrew Brenner, author of the original "Henry's Forest" magazine story, is the head writer of the series! (To be fair, though, Brenner's version didn't trample railway safety nearly as badly.)

Please don't say that you like the episode "Wonky Whistle", or anything in Season 15 for that matter. If you do, RUN.

Do not praise Sharon Miller's writing if you want to escape with your life and/or dignity (feel free to praise her other work such as voice direction however).

Japanese Love Thomas The Tank Engine: So much that they even built a Thomas theme park at the base of Mt Fuji. Not only that, but they even get exclusive promos for the new seasons and specials.

Jerkass Woobie: The large majority of time in most of the seasons' episodes, the engines either gets themselves into a misfortune or an accident, due to their stubborn refusal to accept help from others.

Magic Franchise Word: The phrase "Luckily, no one was hurt" has been thrown around lately following crash scenes. Almost every crash scene nowadays is ruined thanks to it.

It is intentionally used most triumphantly in Tale of the Brave after Marion saves Percy however.

Mary Sue: Lady, a self-insertion by TV series creator Britt Allcroft in the 2000 movie The Magic Railroad. The character appears to have been abandoned, only appearing since in 15 seconds of dream sequence in Calling All Engines (2005).

In 2015, Britt Allcroft revealed that Lady's speaking role was not her idea, but was the result of Executive Meddling.

Never Live It Down: Sharon Miller is much more famous (admittedly for good reason) for her writing contributions to the series rather than for her current role as the voice director.

Older Than He Looks: Many characters fall under this, depending on your interpretation of the series. Thomas is actually almost 100 and Percy is 117 years old.

Periphery Demographic: Because the original stories were based on actual events on the British Railway system and the well done models, train enthusiasts enjoy the show. Also, the show has many older fans who grew up with the show and like to revisit the older episodes. In addition, several of these older fans now look forward to the newer episodes, now that Andrew Brenner and his writing team have gotten the show out of its Seasonal Rot.

The Scrappy: Charlie and The Logging Locos, Ferdinand especially. All of which were created by the same writer.

Most nostalgic fans of the The Railway Series will generally dislike any characters that were not originally introduced in the books, especially if they don't receive any worthwhile Character Development and are really just there to be used as marketing tools.

Replacement Scrappy: Emily was considered to be this by some fans for a while, the need for a prominent female character leading her to take the role of eighth Steam Team member, which left Duck Demoted to Extra. Some fans also considered her introduction pointless due to the existence of Daisy and Mavis, two female characters who were popular with the fans, were well-developed and had interesting personalities. Especially telling is that while Emily was promoted to main cast in Season 8, there was no effort made to make the other female characters (not even the coaches) more prominent, thus defeating the intention to be politically correct. She ended up being a fairly popular, or at least tolerable, character once most of the fanbase warmed up to her.

The "Emily replaced Duck!" issue was acknowledged in a rather cruel light in Season 18's "Duck and the Slip Coaches", where Emily comes to the sheds twice and finds them full due to Duck taking residence for those nights. These scenes alone caused quite a ruckus.

Bash and Dash are perhaps more straightforward examples, their defining trait being that they're mostly just more reckless versions of Bill and Ben. Their lack of a Straight Man (which Bill and Ben had in the form of Edward, BoCo, and Mavis) also meant that they were basically free to do whatever stupid ploy the writers wanted them to, only adding to the fans' ire.

Belle and Flynn prior to Season 17, due to their overly-gimmicky designs and unlikable personality.

Most Emily fans consider her S8-11 portrayal as unsympathetic and annoying compared to theone from S7. However, some think that the former made her more interesting and dynamic while the latter verges upon making her a Canon Sue. Perhaps to circumvent this, S12 onward uses something of compromise, making her more wise and well meaning again, but still somewhat haughty to allow for flawed moments.

Out of the show's universe, Sharon Miller is largely considered to be this by the fanbase.

Specials Calling All Engines! and The Great Discovery are almost universally considered to be better than the likes of Misty Island Rescue and Day of the Diesels, but worse compared to Blue Mountain Mystery and King of the Railway.

Take That, Scrappy!: In Series 17, there are several scenes in which the poor writing, ignorance of continuity, and unlikable characters introduced in past seasons are directly called out or retconned.

"Not Now, Charlie" has Charlie get called out by all the other characters for his constant joking around.

"King of the Railway" has a brief scene where Toby explicitly states that Henry doesn't need special coal, saying that it was fixed years ago.

Both "The Thomas Way" and "Too Many Fire Engines" have a brief shot of the Misty Island tunnel (home of the LoggingLocos) bricked up, with the rails leading to the tunnel removed. Word of God, however, later confirmed that this was not the case, but it might as well be since the Logging Locos have yet to reappear or even be mentioned (outside interstitials) in the Brenner era, and for good reason.

Tale of the Brave takes a quick jab at the previous season with Thomas asking Percy if he's going to take a giant balloon on a flatbed.

Duck and the Slip Coaches has a running gag in which Emily is unintentionally shut out of Tidmouth Sheds, which is where Duck happens to be at the time in both instances. This was confirmed by Word of God to be a nod to fans who accused Emily of replacing Duck on the Steam Team, which was indeed the original plan, until overzealous soccer moms complained of sexism.

They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The Logging Locos suffer from this. Logging was a major industry that involved lots of interesting, specialized locomotives. Bash and Dash were both based on a locomotive with log-hauling gear equipped, and Ferdinand is based on a geared locomotive that was popular for logging operations. However, none of this was ever the character's focus; they instead fell into Scrappy and Creator's Pet territory due to them (and Misty Island by extension) appearing in nearly every episode and only being portrayed as goofballs who don't fit on Sodor.

Uncanny Valley: The faces of the engines themselves. Honestly, the sometimes emotionless expressions are unsettling enough, but then they decide to update them with CG, and now it's just downright frightening.

Diesel was initially a slimy bully who played cruel pranks on engines and dwelled in amusement over steam engines getting scrapped. In later episodes he's more an petty heckler who sometimes just wants approval. Granted this evolution is actually similar to how he was written in the novels. However, they have since returned him to his old personality.

Viewer Gender Confusion: This is apparently more common than you'd expect. Quite a few children mistook Mavis for a male. Skarloey, Rheneas, and Rusty have been mistaken for females before (not to mention Rusty was mistakenly referred to as female by Michael Brandon in the initial television broadcasts of the ninth seasons episodes that Rusty starred in; later airings and DVD releases fixed this). Out of the main cast, James is mistaken as a female disturbingly often.

You would be amazed at how many people have made Thomas episodes overdubbed with some of George Carlin's acts.

Many fans thought Carlin did the role justice, to the point some consider him the best narrator throughout its run. Carlin actually took the role to present a different side to him and is one of the few projects he didn't Self Deprecate.

Percy is practically the designated chew toy of the show. It's especially apparent in Day of the Diesels and Tale of the Brave.

Toby, after his more jittery characterisation was established. Most apparent in the Miller era stories due to Flanderization, though still appears on occasion (e.g. "Signals Crossed").

Sidney, who spent two years on a hoist in the Dieselworks waiting for a new set of wheels that had supposedly failed to be delivered, to the point even the above Woobie Percy feels sorry for him and takes action.

Winston, who has to deal with The Fat Controller's terrible driving.

What an Idiot: In Dirty Work the big engines believe Diesel's lies about Duck although they did have to lose a hell of a lot of IQ points for the story to work, especially since Henry had only just said "Duck would never do that.".

Egregiously in "James to the Rescue". James repeatedly ignoring Toby's advice to get Rocky to re-rail Gordon, culminating with him trying to push Gordon back on the rails. The crash that happens afterwards is spectacular.

Flynn spraying Edward and Gordon because he thought they were on fire (which they were obviously not) in "Fiery Flynn".

Thomas going off without warning while workmen were still on him in "Wonky Whistle".

There are other examples of this trope throughout the series, such as Spencer not listening about water.

Win Back the Crowd: Due to Andrew Brenner becoming head writer in Season 17, there is references to older episodes and fan favourites like Bill, Ben and Duck are brought back. The writing style is also more mature than the other CGI seasons and there has been a lot of Character Rerailment, undoing the Flanderization of the later seasons. Thomas, while still appearing frequently, is relegated to supporting roles and the same moderated number of lead roles as other engines instead of being a Spotlight-Stealing Squad.

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